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Paper #2: US Theatre and American Identity

The Purple Flower and The Cradle will Rock, two plays with two different themes

written for different channels of protest but with the same idea of Americanism and that’s one

that’s measure with how vivid the fire of your fight is. These two plays will let you immerse in

that idea with a more realistic attitude but open to the uncertainty of the “right” definition and the

beauty of a more symbolic approach with divers’ point of views and interpretations. We’ll go

through how these two plays challenge that idea and how they do it and its effectiveness in using

the theatre as their output. 

The Purple Flower is an amazing written metaphor where the message behind all is the

racial and sexists problems existing in the US at those times. This one-act play captures the

essence of what was to be American for the Us’s – the slaves – and their behavior towards the

white devils – the white Americans – The challenge of no matter how hard they work and proved

themselves the white devils will never make them worthy of anything. That they lie and have no

word honor. So, they decided to flip the coin and show them that they can also play their game

and get to their purple flower by mixing what they think will get them leveled with the white

devils – land, gold, education, and blood. That’s the fight and that’s the challenge of the

message, that in order to be American you need to rise up and being your own self because

nothing is handed, America is itself a melting pot. In the times this play was written: “it was all

about black dignity, humanity, alienation/struggle but an overall celebration of blackness” (1)

and The Purple Flower was indeed a realistic - experimental play that showcased how the black

community felt towards America but also how they were moving forward making a statement of

a new identity. 
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In  The Cradle will Rock the idea of Americanness is showed using more controversial

figures, mixing the politics with art and how no matter your social rank or status your voice will

be always muted or manipulated by higher ranks. An America filled with corruption, gluttony

and social control. But with this play is not how the idea of the play challenge the purpose is how

they actually challenge the system at their opening day. Yes, the play is about a unionized

workers group fighting a despicable Mr. Mister who owns pretty much the entire town – sounds

familiar? But yet that is not what is amazing about this, is not the fight is not the message of

mass unity to fight a common villain is how the “Americans” in power shut down the entire

thing the same day they were supposed to premiere and how they responded back. They came

together and use their God-given talents to show the Government what truly means to be

American, the fire in your fight. 

As we can see these two plays use their output, theatre, to raise their voice and be heard.

And even though their message is not entirely the same, they both have a path towards what

means to be American – unity. And theater is a super effective place to achieve that. Theatre

unites the idea and emotion. And being an American in The Purple Flower and The Cradle will

Rock is nothing more than people who came together for the same purpose, state their value and

fought for what they believe was right. 

Citations:

(1) Gibbes, Allison. The Harlem Renaissance. UNLV, 2020.